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Colonial Courts and Their Records
Courts played striking roles in the lives of our colonial ancestors. Because church and state were inseparable in lot of colonies, court proceedings involved controversies not encountered in modern court hearings. Civil and criminal actions concerning church attendance, proper sabbath observance, disputes with ministers and church officials, witchcraft, fornication, adultery, and other moral improprieties are commonplace in court minutes.
When the American colonies were first established, judicial power was exercised by colonial governors who were set by the king. During the earliest years, a couple of courts were established to serve in an advisory capacity to the governors. The judges of these courts served at the pleasure of the governor and had limited authority to settle matters.
As time passed and the populace of the colonies grew, it became essential to establish some county and town courts to supply local authorities for settling conflicts. Similar county and town courts had been established earlier in England and were adopted by the colonies. In England, the workplace of justice of the peace, an appointed official, had developed to cope with local judicial needs. Justices of the peace were usually landowners or merchants who had no formal legal training. This system of local justices who had authority to resolve petty civil disputes and minor criminal matters was transported essentially unchanged to the colonies. Choices of these local and county courts maybe appealed to the governor and the assembly and, ultimately, to the courts of England. Still, such appeals were rare. The matters before these courts were such that the time and expense of appeals normally were not justified.
With the continued development of the colonies, additional courts were established to answer increased judicial proceeding. As commerce increased, so did the need for courts to settle differences. Some colonies began to divide cases between courts and to produce specialized jurisdictions. In addition, new courts were established to deal with certain types of cases. Higher courts of appeals began to appear as well.
Nearly all of the early court records of the original colonies and some later states have been published in various series called archives, such as the Pennsylvania Archives. Such series are often called documentary collections; they typically include early court records, along with numerous other sources. Most of other published colonial court records are from the county court level. They're very useful to genealogists because these records concern a bigger percentage of the people of the time than do later court records. In a few areas where vital and church records are lacking, a court record might be the only source containing a description of an ancestor. It was quite normal for individuals' ages to be included as part of colonial court record going on; in many cases such records might be the only ones in existence from which an estimated birth year can be deduced.
